Photo: (Hans Hillewaert), CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Compote · From Bladwijzer

Apple sauce with wild apples

Updated on 9 October 2026

• Makes: ± 3 jars of 250 ml
• Time: 45 min
• From: Crab apple

Ingredients

• 500 g wild apples
• 500 g sweet or sweet-sharp apples
• 100 ml water
• 50–100 g sugar, to taste
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)

Method

1. Wash all the apples and cut them into large pieces. Leave the skin and core in, but remove any rotten patches.
2. Put them in a pan with the water and cinnamon stick, cover and simmer gently for 25–30 minutes, until everything falls apart. Stir now and then.
3. Take out the cinnamon stick and pass the apples through a food mill or a sieve: skins, cores and pips stay behind.
4. Stir the sugar into the warm sauce, taste and add more if needed: wild apples are sour.
5. Bring the sauce briefly back to the boil and spoon it into clean, sterilised jars. Close at once.
6. Leave the closed jars in boiling water for 10 minutes to pasteurise them, then let them cool.

Storing: Pasteurised, a year in a cool, dark place. Without pasteurising, a week in the fridge; it can also be frozen for up to 6 months.